Author Laura Krauss Melmed Talks about Her Kids Guide to DC

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Laura B. Weiss -- School Library Journal, 1/10/2007

While many kids may think Washington, DC, is all about politics and government, Laura Krauss Melmed's Capital!: Washington D.C. from A to Z (HarperCollins, 2002)—which just came out in paperback—also shows a town that's bustling with great art, music, food, architecture, and diverse cultures and religions.

SLJ spoke to Melmed about her alphabetic guide to the nation's capital and the challenges of discussing politics and government with kids in today's fraught political environment. Her book, with bright, folkloric illustrations, is recommended for grades three to five.

Because I've lived there a good part of my adult life and raised my kids there. I've seen a lot of DC through my kids' eyes. I feel it's everybody's city. Over the years, I've watched the wide-eyed tourists coming and going up and down the mall. People come from all over and they feel, "This is my city."

I'm struck by the fact that you portray DC as a real city in which real people live, not just a place visited by tourists.

There were certain things that were a given. We had to have the White House. It started out with the must-haves. Then I filled in with other places I thought were really interesting.

Some people might consider including the Islamic Center in your book a risky choice in today's political climate.

It [the Islamic Center] was a place that my kids have all gone to in grade school. It's a beautiful building on Massachusetts Avenue. It's a mosque, and it stands out, and I felt that I just wanted to cover it to make the book multicultural. The family that goes through the book is a family of color.

I noticed that you have a Muslim religious institution on the same spread as the Holocaust Museum. Was that intentional?

We really did that on purpose. It's a little subtle wish for peace. We put them in the book next to each other, and we wished the world could be a more peaceful place.

How can educators talk to kids about government when all they hear about in the news is constant partisan bickering?

Things have gotten worse in that regard since I wrote the text for the book. Also, I don't know how much a first or third grader, how much kids of that age look at the Capitol and say, "Oh, those corrupt idiots." I didn't want to get into that kind of level of stuff. I wanted to explain what the Capitol is—what's in there. Political types come and go; hopefully, some of the symbols that are there will remain important to people.

Yes, but kids must be picking up on the level of discord they hear adults having about issues like Iraq.

I tried not to be too rah-rah waving the flag, or "we should go spread democracy to the Middle East." No matter how savvy kids get, no matter how much they are bombarded with things, they're still kids. It's kind of a shame there aren't any heroes anymore.